Let’s face it. Everybody on Planet Earth knew there was NO WAY the Jazz were going to win Game 3 in Oakland. It simply wasn’t in the cards. Too much emotional letdown after the huge Game 2, too tough a crowd, too good a home team. Fair enough.

That said, we sure made it easy on them.

No perimeter defense. Turnover after horrible turnover. Bad shot selection. No inside game. I could go on, but it’s making me depressed, even though I was 100% correct in my prediction for the game.

I don’t want to take anything away from Golden State. They played a tremendous game defensively, shot the lights out, and Baron’s posterizing dunk on AK is going to be highlight-reel stuff for decades. All credit to them and the Oracle fans, who lived up to their billing. Having said that, this loss isn’t really as bad as it seems.

I’m going to state the very obvious here:

1) Can we play a game in this series where Deron Williams doesn’t get two fouls in the first quarter, and three before halftime? Please? Who do I have to bribe to get this to happen? Because it neuters our entire team when he’s sitting on the bench. Then you give Fisher two fouls in the first quarter and three before halftime as well. So we have to have Kirilenko run the point forward again, which was not nearly as successful as in Game 2, probably because Golden State’s defense was so suffocating. Which leads to…

2) 23 turnovers. TWENTY-THREE!!! 16 in the first half? How can you win a basketball game like that? You can’t. No chance. Now, a lot of those turnovers were due to excellent Warrior defense. But most of them were because we had no point guards, because they were riding the pine, because somebody out there is determined to make Baron Davis the hero of this series. (Like he needs the help. No, I’m not going to get over this, especially when I know the same thing will happen in Game 4. If/when D-Will and Fish have six fouls between them before halftime again, don’t expect to see another post from me, because I will have thrown my laptop against the wall in a fit of rage. Just giving fair warning.)

3) Eleven 3-pointers in the first half. 15-32 for the game. What on earth can you do against that? Yes, it’s poor perimeter defense, but when you make that many 3s, it’s something more than that. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime first half there. If it happens again, I’ll know that Don Nelson sold his soul for a team that makes everything they throw up there and organize an exorcism at Oracle. It’s simply inhuman.

Point #1 is something we have no control over. Point #2 will be a whole lot better if #1 isn’t an issue (except, it will be). Point #3, I HAVE to think, will even out over time (nobody stays that hot for that long, unless they have the aforementioned powers of Satan).

So really, all things considered, it’s not that bad. We got that loss out of our system. Time to regroup and come back Sunday with a better handle on how to win in Oakland. Is it possible? Maybe not. But we WILL play better than tonight.

It would be hard not to.

… if this is true. Or this. There’s no reason to think it isn’t, but regardless, it makes me very un-proud to admit I am a Jazz fan. Why some folks have to ruin everything for the rest of us is beyond me. I just feel completely drained when I hear things like this. If these reports are true, my sincerest apologies to Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson and any other Golden State players who were offended.

I’m not going to make any sort of excuse, because there isn’t any. There are just a couple of things I’d like to say, though.

First, Utah isn’t the only place where this happens. There are always a handful of belligerent, ignorant idiots in any crowd who choose to behave this way. It’s easy to single out the Utah crowds because of the population demographic of the state. But it’s not like there aren’t racists at sporting events elsewhere in the country.

Second, Utahns deal with religious slurs all the time. I’ve traveled to many different BYU athletic events across the country and heard every kind of horrible comment about my choice of religion from the home team’s fans. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of anti-Mormon comments in Oakland this weekend.

That is in no way an excuse. But it is interesting to me that when players mention racist comments in Utah, it’s a big deal, but when players mention religiously bigoted comments in other places, no one cares.

For the record, I have never heard any such racist comments at any Jazz game I’ve ever attended in my life. (Our best players are black, so it’s fundamentally stupid anyway). I’m not saying it didn’t happen, just that I’ve never heard it, and wouldn’t tolerate it if I had.

PLEASE, fans: no matter what team you support, have the human decency to cheer without bigotry, or get out of the stadium.